Tag Archive for: awakening

The Blessing of Conscious and Unconscious Relationships

Reading Time: 4 minutes

One of my favorite teachers of spiritual awakening is local sage Leonard Jacobson. He has a way of eloquently articulating wisdom and Truth that has greatly benefited me and so many others. He recently wrote a short article called The Blessing of Conscious and Unconscious Relationships. It so succinctly and accurately explains the dynamics in relationships that I wanted to share it with everyone here. Please enjoy Leonard’s life-changing wisdom!

The Blessing of Conscious and Unconscious Relationships

“There are two kinds of relationship. The first is a dysfunctional and unconscious relationship, based in the past and future. The second is a conscious relationship based in the present moment.

When a relationship is based in the past, we are looking to our partner to fulfill needs that were not met in childhood by our parents. Our mother and father were not present for us in the way we needed them to be.

As a result, we did not feel loved and accepted in a way that made us feel safe, and so to varying degrees, we developed limiting beliefs that now affect every aspect of our lives and our relationships.

These beliefs include: I am not loved, I am not good enough, I am not accepted, there is no one here for me, I am unworthy, I am alone, I am abandoned, I have to repress my feelings, I don’t count, I can’t ask for what I want, I have to please others, just to name a few.

These beliefs are associated with very painful feelings that we learn to repress. We then embark upon a journey to find someone who will be here for us and who will meet that unfilled need to be loved, accepted and acknowledged.

The problem is that life manifests as a reflection of our inner world, so that we attract people into our lives who match those limiting beliefs.

We attract people into our lives who are not loving or accepting, and so the pain of living in a world where no one is truly present with us continues. If we attract a partner who is loving and accepting, we cannot really feel it or allow it in, because it contradicts our deeper beliefs.

In an unconscious relationship, our repressed emotions are constantly being triggered, and we project the blame onto our partner, when what is really happening is that our partner is simply triggering feelings repressed within us from our past.

In an unconscious relationship, we are lost in our story and we are trying to get our partner to enter our story to make it better.

Some typical issues that arise in an unconscious relationship are blame, guilt, expectation and resentment. In an unconscious relationship, control patterns and judgment are often a source of conflict.

An unconscious relationship is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact I recommend it! It gives us the opportunity to look into the mirror that is the relationship, and bring consciousness to all the unconscious aspects of ourselves, all the unhealed emotional wounds and all those limiting beliefs still with us from childhood.

This kind of relationship gives us the opportunity to witness certain aspects of our personality, which we would prefer to ignore, deny or project onto our partner. It gives us the opportunity to be observant of our control patterns and judgments.

How present are you with your partner? How do you express love? Are you generous, grateful, compassionate and supportive? Are you judgmental and controlling?

Are you filled with expectations that you do not clearly express, and when those expectations are not met, do you become resentful? When you are hurt, do you become angry or do you withdraw? How do you express your anger? Are you abusive? Are you a victim?

These are just some of the issues and questions that must be addressed and brought to consciousness if you want to move from a dysfunctional relationship to a conscious relationship.

In a conscious relationship, we are fundamentally present.

We have been through a process of healing the past. We have released ourselves from those limiting beliefs from childhood and we have emptied those reservoirs of emotions that were repressed within us.

We have embraced responsibility for ourselves at every level. We feel whole and complete within ourselves and we do not need our partner to complete us or make us feel safe and secure.

We no longer need our partner to be here for us, but rather we want our partner to be here with us.

Just to change one simple word from ‘for’ to ‘with’ radically transforms the relationship. In a conscious relationship, both parties are empowered from within and are not seeking to have power or control over the other. In a conscious relationship, communication is clear and direct and honest.

A conscious relationship does not have to be perfect. It is OK to make mistakes as long as both parties to the relationship are willing to take responsibility for whatever is arising within them. In fact, it is in making mistakes or lapsing into unconsciousness that affords us with the opportunity for greater consciousness, provided we are willing and able to look into the mirror that is the relationship and to own, acknowledge and confess any unconscious aspect of ourselves we see reflected there.

At the deepest level, the real gift we bring to each other is the gift of Presence.

When you are present you are, by your very nature, loving, accepting, compassionate, generous, grateful and allowing. When you are present, you are without judgment. The more that Presence is the foundation of your relationship, the more fulfilling, joyful and uncomplicated it will be.

In a conscious relationship, we relate to each other in the moment and do not seek comfort from the idea that someone will be there to make us feel safe in one year or five years or for a lifetime. In truth there is only NOW! When we come to terms with that simple truth, it will open us into a life of freedom, truth and love.

A conscious relationship is a great blessing. It provides you with a companion with whom you can share a loving life. An unconscious relationship is also a great blessing. It provides you with a remarkable opportunity to wake up out of your unconsciousness.”

Love Image - June 21, 2020 blog

The Evolution of Humanity

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“The difference between duality consciousness and unity consciousness is profound. In the former, you appear to be separate from all others, and clashing is nigh unto inevitable. In the latter, you experience total connection. You do not think about the connection, for then you are still in duality. Nay, you shift your perspective to the experience of oneness. What does this feel like? We could describe it in a thousand words and you still would not know. But the soul knows. The soul remembers. Ask within to know oneness while sitting quietly. And then, go there often, most especially when you experience strife within the duality. This is the beauty of awakening. You are so very loved.” – Sanaya, channeled through Suzanne Giesemann

I would encourage anyone on the path of spiritual awakening to sign up for these free daily pearls of channeled wisdom from Suzanne Giesemann. They can help re-align your perspective from human to soul, and from bondage to liberation.

Since we are multi-dimensional beings, we have access to different lenses to view life from. It is common and natural to view life from the human perspective that is often based in the fear of losing something…another person or pet, health, life, money, success, admiration, etc. This is natural because this human realm is the realm of loss. Yet behind the scenes is another part of you that is eternal, free of loss and based in love. Humanity is just on the verge of awakening to the soul part of us that is animating our bodies. A multitude of books about the soul are emerging, such as A Lawyer Presents the Evidence of the Afterlife by Victor Zammit. There is now even a popular Netflix series called Surviving Death. When we begin to identify more with the soul aspect of ourselves, it will be the perception shift that brings freedom. One part of us experiences hurt and death, while the other part of us cannot die and is based in love. And we cannot separate ourselves from this part of us.

One way to experience the transcendent part of us is through past life regression. Probably the greatest attribute of one of these sessions is that it ultimately allows a person to experience what it is like to be outside of the programming and conditioning of the human mind, take on new perspectives from a different human role, and then ultimately be free of the human mindset altogether after the life is over. At that point in the session, the deeper you go into the spiritual realm, the more you’ll experience the soul’s perspective that is based in love and is interested in growth and evolution.

One part of us is mostly based in fear and lack, while the other, more permanent part of us, is based in love, peace and a freedom which lacks nothing. This part of us seeks to be the source of so much for others…a source of compassion, comfort, love and strength. To be able to express this in human form is what feels the most harmonious to the soul.

What if you absolutely knew you were role-playing your life? Like a lucid dream in which you could be awake while living in the role that you’re playing? That is what life feels like during the part of the regression experience where you connect to your soul self. You gain the understanding that you can choose how you go through life, how you respond to challenges and how you relate to others. This choice then often helps to create what comes back to you via the law of attraction. What you put out in the world tends to come back to you.

I will close with another quote from Sanaya, the group of wise spiritual beings channeled by Suzanne Giesemann:

“Would you ask the deep life questions if one you love had not passed? Would you wonder about the purpose of life, the eternality of it if you did not feel a longing to be with them for eternity? There is purpose in the brevity of the physical life. Brevity, of course, is a relative thing, for there is a psychological aspect to time. At times it seems to drag, and yet, when one you love is gone, it can seem an eternity until you will see them again. You are all eternal. You will see each other again, but the absence of seeing, for now, serves a purpose. It nudges you to discover the purpose of being. We could tell you what that is, but that would be cheating you out of the experience of experiencing your purpose. And so, there is great purpose in our silence. There is great purpose in birth and death in this parenthesis in eternity. Ask the questions. Experience the answer, Love. You are This.”

Passing Along Astrological Wisdom

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I receive plenty of newsletters that are geared towards growing, evolving and awakening…so many that I don’t have the time to thoroughly read them all. But I’m pretty consistent about reading Joan Pancoe’s quarterly Astrological newsletter. I don’t know how I got on her list years ago, but her candid sense of humor, coupled with her spiritual wisdom and the many quotes she shares always holds my interest…even for someone like me who believes in astrology but my mind tends to shut down when people begin to explain the details of it.

For this month’s blog, I thought I would share her newsletter as a way of introducing another wise teacher and resource for those on the awakening path. Joan Pancoe is a spiritual teacher, trance channel, psychic and karmic astrologer in private practice in New York City since 1976. Please enjoy reading her latest cosmic newsletter.

 

sunbeam

Sources of Inspiration

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This human experience is about forgetfulness of who we are behind the scenes while we play out our role as a human being. We also lose focus of our larger purpose…to find a way to make life a rich, enjoyable experience for ourselves. Life becomes more enjoyable as we become more conscious that we are creating our experience with our subtle and often subconscious thoughts/feelings/beliefs. One of my favorite quotes is by David Schnarch, a marriage therapist: “Life has an eloquent way of holding our happiness hostage, and the price for ransom is our own growth and development.” Life goes so much smoother when we mine out the often unconscious sabotaging beliefs of unworthiness or “not good enough”, which, to varying degrees, comes with this human experience due to the illusion of separation. This separateness is a veil between us, our higher self and our connection to Source.

One of the biggest challenges in life is to find lasting happiness. Hint: It won’t be found outside of you because that will one day be lost. Look for that which never goes away…what part of you never goes away even after death? Can you ever really escape the light, energy and consciousness that you are? There is a part of you that is synonymous with peace, love and joy because you are interwoven with Source energy, and you can’t escape it…but it does get covered up in this human experience because our focus is continually on the material world that comes and goes and involves loss. Loss is built into this human experience to challenge ourselves to decide how we are going to respond to it.

Loss is difficult to experience. I had a girlfriend die of breast cancer years ago. My heart was very heavy for many, many months and I often cried. Tears would erupt like a volcano through me at unexpected times. An appropriate response to loss is to allow the sadness to move through you. Emotions, like everything else in the material world, come and go. It helped to deal with her loss when there was some awareness in the back of my mind that I could still connect to her spirit and her love. In fact, there were a couple of times when I experienced an even deeper connection with her love than when she was in her body because there were no longer any mind programs of the ego that had a sneaky way of limiting the experience of giving and receiving love.

I’d like to share something that helps me re-focus my attention to that which is eternal. One is a free daily reminder in the form of an email from Suzanne Giesemann. Suzanne Giesemann is a former U.S. Navy Commander who served as a commanding officer and aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. These days she is an evidence-based medium and channels a group of beings known as Sanaya. Once a day I receive a short message of inspiration, wisdom and truth that helps me re-align to my higher self. Here is a sample of this wisdom:

“If you are stressing about something, then you are not trusting.  You are neither trusting yourself or others, perhaps.  It matters not the exact situation.  Whatever the case, stress indicates that you are focusing fully on yourself in the role as a human being.  Do you not remember that you are the Sea of Love from which the human arises?  You must not remember, or you would not be experiencing stress.  The soul has never forgotten what the human often forgets.  The soul is the bridge between the human role and the Whole.  Turn around.  Trace your way back Home in your awareness to Pure Awareness, and you will remember that things fall into place when you bring the role into alignment with your True Self.”

If you would like to receive these free daily messages, here is a link to sign up.

Another reminder of Truth is through a weekly email from Beth Geer, a local pharmacist and author of the book, “Awakening To One Love: uncover the inner peace and joy hidden within you”. Her book is channeled from a higher source called Holy Spirit. She will send you free weekly channeled Miracle Minded Messages when you subscribe.

Until we become fully enlightened, it’s helpful to be reminded of  our “more permanent” identity over and over again until the Truth of our eternal being is firmly entrenched in our awareness, thereby releasing the grip of many subtle fears that go along with this human experience.

Q & A Interview with the Edge Magazine

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I was featured in the March 2018 edition of the Edge Magazine. I’d like to share it with you to give you some background about how I became interested in hypnotherapy. This interview shares details about my work and also who I am as a person.

The article also gives me a chance to highlight the Edge Magazine and the valuable role it has played in my life. It’s a metaphysical magazine that has helped me grow and evolve over the past 25 years. It offers consciousness-expanding interviews and articles of practitioners on the forefront of healing and spiritually awakening.

Please enjoy the Q & A interview here!

 

The Awakened Way

Reading Time: 5 minutes

This earth life offers each of us precise opportunities to grow and evolve to our next level. It is happening whether we are awake to it or not. All the while, there is one master soul lesson, and that is to awaken to our truest and highest nature. One can find many people who are awakening these days if you look for them (hint: check out www.batgap.com). It reminds me of a quote by one enlightened woman, Neelam: “First things first…first awaken to who and what you are, then see if your problems still make any sense.”  Awakening is simply realizing and identifying with the part of you that never comes and goes, that’s always here and now, no matter what spiritual dimension you are on or physical life you are in. One of my favorite teachers of awakening, Adyashanti, says that this realization begins first in the head, then drops into the heart, and finally the gut and you fully know it because you are it. I am sharing with you an answer that was posed to Adyashanti about awakening. Please enjoy reading his response:

What is it like to live an awakened life?

“While the world is trying to solve its problems and everyone around you is engaged in the same, you’re not. While everybody around you is trying to figure it out, trying to arrive, trying to “get there,” trying to be worthy, you’re not. While everyone thinks that awakening is a grand, noble, halo-enshrouded thing, for you it’s not. While everybody is running from this life right now, in this moment, to try to get there, you’re not. Where everybody has an argument with somebody else, mostly everybody else, starting with themselves, you don’t. Where everybody is so sure that happiness will come when something is different than it is now, you know that it won’t. When everybody else is looking to achieve the perfect state and hold on to it, you’re not.

When everybody around you has a whole host of ideas and beliefs about a whole variety of things, you don’t. Everyone on the path is getting there; you haven’t gotten anywhere. Everyone is climbing the mountain; you’re selling hiking boots and picks at the foot in the hope that if they climb it and come back down, they may be too exhausted to do it again. When everybody else is looking to the next book, to the next teacher, to the next guru to be told what’s real, to be given the secret key to an awakened life, you’re not. You don’t have a key because there’s not a lock to put it in.

When you’re living what you are in an awakened way, being simply what you’ve always been, you’re actually very simple. You basically sit around wondering what all the fuss is about.

When everyone is sitting around saying, “I hope that happens to me,” you remember when you did that. You remember that you didn’t find a solution to that. You remember that the whole idea that there was a problem created all of that.

When you’re being what you are, when you’re living the awakened life, there’s nobody to forgive, because there’s no resentment held, no matter what.

The truth of your being doesn’t crave happiness; it could actually care less. It doesn’t crave love, not because you are so full of love, but because it just doesn’t crave love. It’s very simple. It doesn’t seek to be known, regarded highly, or understood. When you’re living what you are in an awakened way, there’s no ideal for you anymore. You’ve stepped off the entire cycle of suffering, of becoming; you’re not interested.

It’s a curious life you find yourself in. You find yourself… where you are. Not where I am, where you are. Where you really are. Where we really are. It’s a curious place to be (especially in the beginning) not to be driven by anything—pleasure or displeasure, helping or hurting, loving or hating. The only thing that will move you (and I don’t mean to be too poetic about this) is the same thing that moves a leaf hanging from a tree. It’s simply because the breeze blows that way. So you always know what to do: The breeze blows that way, and that’s the way you go. You don’t ask questions anymore. You don’t evaluate why the breeze is blowing that way because you know that you don’t know why. And you know you can’t know why. There’s never been a leaf anywhere that knows why the wind blows that way on that day at that moment. That breeze changes the orientation of your life, moment to moment to moment, simply because that’s the way life’s moving. And when you’re living in your awakened self you have no argument with the way it’s moving because it is the same as you are.

And you know that the breeze was always there, from the very beginning, and that it wasn’t reserved for special people. If you didn’t notice it at some point in your life, you know it was because you weren’t listening, or because you thought you had to figure something out before you could listen, or because you thought there had to be some conclusion before you could just listen so deeply, so without agenda, so without hope of a better future that you would feel the movement.

Many of you know what I’m speaking of.

Truth never explains why it’s moving that way at that moment. And if you ask, it won’t give any information. It would be like a leaf asking the wind, “Why are you moving that way right now?” The question doesn’t make any sense to the wind.

But your argument with the way the truth would move—whatever that way is—is no longer there for you. You’re no longer arguing with it. You’re no longer trying to figure it out. Mother Mary didn’t figure it out. Buddha didn’t figure it out. Ramana didn’t figure it out. None of them figured it out. They just became That. Simple. Ordinary—in the same way a leaf is ordinary.

When you’re living in your awakened being and living in an awakened way, power on any level is not an issue for you. It’s not interesting. The power to control another human being is not interesting. Intellectual power is not interesting. The power to control yourself is not interesting. The power that people want to give you is not interesting to you—not because it shouldn’t be; it’s just not. What would you want to do with it? You see that there’s nothing you want to do with it.

You realize, in the truth of your being, that you are the totality itself, but you have no interest whatsoever in doing anything with that knowledge, with using that knowledge.

Finally, you realize that you really don’t want to change anybody, not because you shouldn’t want to change them, because you just don’t. You might not want to be around everyone, but still you don’t want to change them.

None of this is an ideal—it’s the end of ideals. None of this is holiness; it’s the end of holiness. It’s the beginning of wholeness. None of this is something to achieve, because it’s not achievable. It’s simply what is in the truth of your being. It’s just what is. You can’t attain what’s naturally so. And nobody anywhere can ever tell you when or why, or to what degree you’ll let go of untruth; you will let go when you let go, usually when nothing else works.

When you’re living in the awakened way, in the awakened being that you are, you’re alone, and you’re finally comfortable with it. You’re alone, but you’re not lonely at all, because the only one who was ever supposed to meet you where you are—the only one who ever could meet you where you are one hundred percent—was you. Nobody else could ever fully meet you where you are—maybe ninety percent, maybe ninety-five. Nobody can meet you fully but you. When you finally do, then you don’t need anybody else to do it for you. Then you’re alone, more alone than you could ever imagine. And strangely—very strangely—you are more connected, more intimate, more at one with everything. More. And you would have never thought that those two could in any way be together: total aloneness and total oneness. You would have never guessed that that’s the way it would end up. But it does, and it always has.

And finally, when you’re just living in the awakened way that you really are, you’ll never form an image again of what it’s like. Even as it’s happening, you won’t form an image because you’ll know they’re all images, dust. The way it was yesterday won’t be the way it is today.”

What Must I Do To Awaken?

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Sages will answer this question differently, such as “there’s nothing you can do to awaken” or “the ‘you’ that’s trying to awaken isn’t what awakens.” The following is an answer from Leonard Jacobson. Leonard is an awakened teacher who has been sharing his simple and direct way of awakening for the past 35 years. His book, Journey Into Now, is one of my favorites. Below is an answer that exemplifies much of the core of his teaching. Enjoy!

Question:

What must I do, what must happen, for me to AWAKEN and be free? How do I do this? Where is the moment from asleep to awake?

Answer:

To live an awakened life requires a deep intention on your part to be present. Every moment you have the choice. Will you choose to be present with what is actually here now, or will you choose to be in the world of the thinking mind, which is an illusory world of thought, memory and imagination. The choice is yours. It is up to you and no one else. No guru can help you. Spiritual practices will ultimately fail. The present moment is always available. It never withdraws and it never gives up on you. It constantly re-presents itself to you. In truth it never goes away. But you have to choose it.

The more you choose Presence, the more grounded you will become in the truth and reality of the present moment. The more grounded you are in the truth and reality of the present moment, the more you will experience the sacred and the divine in those ordinary moments. If your commitment is to being present, then there will come a time when being present becomes your natural state. The present moment becomes your home and you will have short excursions into the world of the mind, but you never go so far into the mind that you will get lost.

Everything that occurs within the world of the mind is of the remembered past or imagined future. None of it is happening now. If you become identified with your thoughts, memories or imaginings, then you take yourself out of the present moment. You take yourself into an illusory world and deprive yourself of the true life, which can only be lived in this moment.

If there are any wounds or limiting patterns or beliefs from the past, which are preventing you from moving into the present moment, then they will begin to surface and it is up to you to bring them into the full light of consciousness, so that healing and release can occur within an environment of unconditional love and acceptance.

If you are still having difficulty choosing to be present, then we will have to examine more closely what your ego is up to. What is it so desperately trying to hold on to? What is it afraid of? What are its tricks and strategies to keep you in its world of the past and future? All of these things will have to be brought to the light of consciousness.

A complete absence of judgment is one of the principal keys to awakening. Examine judgment in your life. It can be very subtle.

You ask where is the moment from asleep to awake. There is only one possible answer. Here!!! Now!!! Where else can you awaken but here? And when, if not now?

Remember that in truth, there is nothing but the present moment. In truth, you can never be anywhere else. The experience of being somewhere other than in the present moment is nothing more than an illusion which is created when you enter the world of the mind, and become identified with the story that is unfolding there.

In a way, it is artificial to imagine that you can awaken in any kind of permanent way. Even permanence is an illusion. There is only NOW. And so the question that constantly arises is “Am I awake and fully present NOW? And of course, that question arises and is answered in perfect silence.

Awakening is the simplest thing in the world. It feels so much better to be present rather than in the world of the mind. The present moment is the doorway to God. The present moment IS God. Why doesn’t everyone choose it?

Befriending an Unwanted Emotion

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It feels almost instinctual as a human being to avoid a negative feeling. If something from the past doesn’t feel good, it’s quite common and understandable to distract yourself from it through any number of ways such as using chemicals, overeating, overworking, etc. This may seem to help for awhile, however, the act of avoidance keeps it locked in your body/mind system, unconsciously influencing you in a limiting way. You may even to decide to deal with the symptoms of the unwanted feeling with medications or coping skills, which can be helpful. But there may come a time when you decide to heal and release the root of it. When you do, a key to releasing an unwanted emotion lies in the last place one would expect to find it…inside the negative feeling itself!

Where would you look to find the unwanted past that has a grip on your underlying feelings and beliefs? Although the past no longer exists, it can have a strong, influential hold on us. The body is a good place to look because it is a storehouse of old, outdated feelings that have not been given a chance to be fully articulated, expressed and/or processed.

In the paradigm of higher consciousness, unwanted feelings are not avoided, but instead viewed more as a small child nagging for attention because they are ready to be liberated from your body/mind system. As this happens, you become a freer human being…a clearer expression of your soul, rather than an expression of the fears from your past programming and conditioning. A negative feeling is simply a guidepost that informs us that we are out of alignment with our soul’s perspective, while a feeling of harmony and joy indicates we are in alignment with our soul’s purpose.

These days there are an increasing amount of emotional healing methods such as EFT, EMDR, Emotion Code, etc. The right fit varies among individuals. It’s important to note that healing is a process that happens in layers. A triggered emotion means you’re ready for the next layer to release. I often use a light trance method that is a combination of effective techniques called the Emotional Healing and Awakening session. It’s a process that’s best done with a guide who can keep your focus anchored in the present moment. When you permit a negative emotion to be your guide, it illuminates the unconscious beliefs it operates from, as well as where it originated. The key is to place your full attention into that negative emotion. As a result, the past is then reduced to a sensation in the body. The moment you fully feel it in the body, you have switched from thinking mode to feeling mode, and you’ve become anchored in the present moment. When anchored in the present moment, you can access the subconscious mind, thus uncovering the unconscious beliefs that this emotion operates from, as well as allowing it to point toward any situations, events or circumstances that contributed to this feeling. With your will and intent, you can send the negative energy out of your body and recover the part of you that was lost when you took on that negative emotion.

Here’s an example: A man came to me with debilitating anxiety. As he fine-tuned his focus on it, he could feel it most in his stomach. Often, I ask the client to give the emotion a voice and let it say what the feeling is. “I feel fear,” is what it said. I had it continue…”I feel most afraid because…I might make a mistake.” Again I had the feeling continue, “And that means…I’ll be judged and criticized.” “And that means…I won’t be loved, and I’ll be all alone.” In this manner we got to the subconscious beliefs which were lying beneath the anxiety, and were fueling it and locking it into place. Next, we allowed the anxiety to guide his awareness to the scenes and situations earlier in his life that caused the feeling. The scenes all related to a father who would not tolerate mistakes, thus it became imperative for him to not make a mistake. These tense energies from early events had been trapped and replayed in his body for years, creating a pressure-cooker effect that exacerbated his anxiety. As he focused and felt the feelings from the past in his body, he could then release them from his body/mind system, and bring in the part of himself that was covered up and lost when he took on the fear-based energy. After then doing healing work on the timeline of his life, his body steeped in the lighter energies of freedom, strength and confidence, and these positive emotions became more strongly embedded in his subconscious mind and in the cellular memory of his body.

Our negative feelings are not who we are, but who we are can observe, understand, release and heal them with intention. As long as we fear and avoid them, they will enslave us. But when we allow them to guide us to what wants to be acknowledged and no longer hidden within us, we can liberate these negative energies from our body/mind systems, enabling us to live from the true freedom that we are as souls, and which we can never really escape from!

What Is Enlightenment?

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I would like to share an article by Neile Donald Walsch, author of the ‘Conversation With God’ series. He has a way of articulating deep concepts and ideas in a simple manner. I enjoyed his thoughts on Enlightenment and I hope you do as well! Here’s Neile:

 

Let’s talk about Enlightenment—that elusive magical mystical experience for which many people seem to be searching.

We have not only been search-ing for Enlightenment, we have been searching as well for a definition of Enlightenment, because we know intuitively that we can’t get to that destination until we know where we are going.

And so the first step for most human beings has been to try to define what Enlightenment is, or what it looks like, or feels like, or what it is like to experience that.

As we look around us in this world we see that many “Paths to Enlightenment” have been suggested, recommended, created, expressed, experienced, shared, and put into the space of our collective lives.

The Buddha said that he knew a way to Enlightenment. Bahá’u’lláh said that he knew a way. More contemporarily, Paramahansa Yogananda said that he knew a way to Enlightenment.

Yogananda taught in the West from 1920 until his death in 1952. He published his life story, Autobiography of a Yogi, in 1946. and created the Self-Realization Fellowship.

When Yogananda, or Master, as he was called, came to America he brought a technique for “self-realization,” which was his phrase meaning Enlightenment.

“When you realize who the Self is,” he said, “you become enlightened.”

You are more aware. You are more at peace with the world. You are internally serene, totally content, and thus, wonderfully empowered . . . in a quiet, gentle sort of way . . . to move through life, to experience Divine Presence in you, as you.

Yet how can we arrive at this place of Self Realization?

Well…God says, “No one calls to me who is not answered.” And I believe that each of us will be answered by that which we call Divine, in the way which most effectively responds to the vibration that we hold and create from the center of our being.

For Paramahansa Yogananda, the way was, chiefly, meditation. But God says that God, or Divinity, or Enlightenment, if you please, appears in the lives of every person in a form that is most appropriate to their background, their culture, the level of their desire, and their willingness.

So there are many disciplines: physical disciplines, mental disciplines, spiritual disciplines, and some disciplines that involve all three — the body, the mind and the spirit.

We spoke of The Buddha earlier. One day Siddhartha Gautama — the man who came to be called “Buddha” — said:

“I’ve tried everything. I’ve done all the physical discipline, all the training, all the exercise, all the starvation, all the diets, all the fasting, and all the meditation. Now I’m just going to sit here beneath this tree and I’m not getting up until I’m Enlightened.”

And there he sat, doing nothing. No exercises, no meditations, no fasting, no nothing – – just sitting there doing absolutely nothing.

Now that is hard for many of us to do, because we think there is something we are suppose to be doing in order to be Enlightened.

Suddenly Siddhartha said with a start: “I’m Enlightened.” And people came to him and cried out, “What did you do? What did you do? Teach us, Master! You have become the Buddha, the Enlightened One. What is the secret? What did you do?”

And the Buddha said something quite extraordinary, which I paraphrase here: “There is nothing that you have to be, do, or have. Simply BE what you have always been . . . and don’t deny it.”

Imagine. After all that time. After the life he had lived and all that he did and saw. After all the luxury and then all the self-denial, after wearing a silk shirt and then a hair-shirt, after thoroughly satisfying his body and then starving his body, after no spiritual or physical discipline and then tons of discipline…after all that time, he realized it was not about doing or having anything, and it was not about not doing or having anything. It was about the middle way.

It was about just living life, non-attached to anything in partic-cular. Not attached to your luxuries and joys, and not attached to your poverty and tragedies. It was not about any of that.

It can be if you want it to be. It can be if that is what suits you. It can be if that is your path, but it is not necessary to be, do, or have anything in particular.

The Buddha said, in effect, “I’m Enlightened because I have realized that Enlightenment is knowing that there is nothing you have to do to be Enlightened. Just be your True Self.”

Isn’t that interesting? Think of all the effort that people are putting in, with years-long programs and trainings, only to find out that Enlightenment requires nothing at all — except letting go of what you are not.

What you are not is anything that is not Love.

I hate to be so simplistic here, so predictable, but Who You Are is Divinity, physically expressed — and what Divinity is . . . is Love.

If you simply love everyone whose life you touch endlessly, unconditionally, with nothing needed or wanted in return (what can God possibly need in return?), you have become Enlightened, you have achieved Awareness. AND . . . you have shown everyone else how they may do so as well — as fast as any other mental system or spiritual discipline that exists, like that.

As fast as Transcendental Meditation, like that. As fast as joining the Self-Realization Fellowship, like that. As fast as taking est, like that. As fast as Brain Education and Dahn Hak and Vibrational Attunement and any other process or mechanism or path you can name.

And if you learn to love yourself unconditionally, as well as everyone else, you will heal your entire self without lifting a finger.

Now I want to discuss this thing called health, because many people believe that you are not enlightened unless you are in good health.

Does Enlightenment mean being in good health? And what is “good health” anyway? Is good health having a body that has nothing wrong with it? Is good health living until you are 90 or 100 or 200 or 500? ?

Ernest Holmes was the founder of Religious Science, and wrote a book called The Science of Mind. He was said to have found the way to create a perfect and wonderful life. Yet he lived only until he was 73. Why did he not live longer, if he was so spiritually “healthy” and aware? Half the people that I know have lived longer!

Is Enlightenment, and “good health”, having no pain and nothing malfunctioning with your physical form? Is good health the absence of anything that is not perfect in your physical experience?

Or — now listen to this carefully — is good health being very okay and in a place of joy and peace no matter how things are?

What is health, what is optimum health, if it is not happiness?

I know people who exercise every day, lifting weights and running and working out, eating well, doing all the right things, and their bodies are in great health, but their hearts and their minds and their souls are very ill and desperately sad. They are incomplete, unfulfilled, unexpressed, and deeply unhappy.

And I know people who are hardly able to lift a toothpick, their bodies are in such bad shape . . . but their hearts and their minds and their souls are bright as a shining star, and they are happy.

I know such a man, whose name is Ram Dass. Do you know of whom I speak? Ram Dass is a Master, and I was vastly privileged to have met him personally. He has taught many people for many years. He wrote a book called Be Here Now, among others.

A number of years ago now, Ram Dass had a stroke. He was a young man; he was only 63 or something like that. I met with Ram Dass after his stroke, in a hotel room in Denver, and I want to tell you something. I’ve never met a healthier man.

I sat in that room with a Master. I said, “Ram Dass, how are you?” And he sat there in his wheelchair and said very slowly and very carefully, “I am won-der-ful.”

He had to pronounce each syllable as if it was a separate word. His mouth, his tongue, couldn’t work any faster than that. But he looked at me and smiled and said, “I-am-won-der-ful.”

Now that’s health…that’s health. That’s peace. That’s joy. And I cried. Not for Ram Dass. Who would cry for a person who said something like that? I cried for myself.

How could I have missed it? How could I have walked right past this wisdom for so many years?

In the end,. We came here to understand Who We Are, and to experience it.

We did not come here to somehow “get better” or to “work on our stuff.” Consider the possibility that all the work you will ever need to do is finished. All you have to do now is demonstrate that. Ernest Holmes left when he left because he had demonstrated what he came here to demonstrate.

So this moment is the moment of your liberation. You can be liberated from your life-long search for Enlightenment. You can be released from any thought that it has to look like this…no, no, it has to look like that, no, no, you have to get to it by this path, by that program, by the other process or activity.

If Enlightenment is outer joy and inner peace, outer ease and inner tranquility, outer consciousness and inner awareness, and you are experiencing that — then you have found Enlightenment.

So set yourself free today. Stop working so hard on yourself that you don’t even enjoy it anymore. Do what works for you, but make sure it brings you joy.

Enlightenment is EnJOYment. It is the pouring of pure joy into Life.

Now here is what I know will bring you joy. Decide that the rest of your life — every day, every moment, every word — is something that you will share with everyone whose life you touch in a way that ensures that they will know there is nothing they have to do, nowhere they have to go, and no way they have to be, in order to be loved by you right now.

Let them know that they are perfect just as they are, just as they are standing there.

Spend the rest of your life giving people back to themselves, that they might love themselves, and know that there is nothing they are lacking, nothing they are missing, nothing they need, nothing they are not.

It has been said that the other is your mirror, and you will see there naught but what you see in yourself. Yet I tell you this. Do not wait to see yourself as perfect before you see The Other as perfect. See The Other as perfect first . . . then you will see perfection in yourself.

Forgive the other first, then you will forgive yourself at last. Do unto others as you would have it done unto you. This is the Law and the Prophets.

For there IS no Other, save You. And when you know this, you save you. You become . . . your Saviour.

What I am talking about here is simply sharing love, which is who you really are. And if you learn and choose and decide to share love — endlessly, unconditionally — with everyone, you will find that there is nothing else to do to seek Enlightenment. You will have achieved it.

So, with that as our determination and that as our choice and that as our decision, let us join together and experience our own ‘Enlightenment’.

The Challenge and Rewards of Ascension

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Here’s a short article I submitted to the Edge magazine regarding the topic of Ascension. Please enjoy!

While meditating, a vision appeared to me: a multitude of people were climbing up the terraced steps of a pyramid-shaped mountain, covering all sides of it. They represented humanity on different levels and places in their evolutionary growth. Some were being helped up while others were turning around and pulling up someone below them as they made their way to the top. I realized this vision symbolized what we are striving to accomplish as human beings on earth…we are moving from the sleep of ignorance to the dawn of awakening of who and what we really are…our journey toward Self Realization. It could also be framed as path leading from suffering to bliss. This is a journey that we are all on whether we are aware of it or not. At this point in our human evolution, most of us are not aware in this moment that we are actually brilliantly free spiritual beings having a human experience, although that is rapidly changing along with so many other things these days.

As I journey on my own path of awakening, guiding some while being supported by others, ascension for me means becoming more fully present here and now in the body, feeling the richness of emotions as well as the myriad expressions of the senses. However, this is impossible to do for long periods of time because our thinking mind mostly operates from the past and pulls us into the future. Overcoming this dilemma of trying to maintain full presence then becomes a matter of proper identification – no longer identifying with our fluctuating emotions and thoughts, but rather with that which never goes away, the deeper sense of life and ‘beingness’ that is hidden within each one of us. Being fully present goes hand in hand with becoming more aware of who and what is always present in the body – our spiritual self.

When we only identify with our human self and the thoughts and feelings that rise and fall within us, we unconsciously operate from the conditioning and programming of our past. Frequently, painful emotions are avoided. However, the act of avoidance locks them in a repeating pattern within the body/mind system, while permitting them to be fully felt allows that emotional energy to pass through. When you know and identify yourself as the life that animates the body, when you know that as a soul you are role playing here and can never ultimately be harmed, then even painful emotions can be fully felt and understood not only as a different vibration in the body, but also as part of the rich human experience. By embracing all of our negative or painful emotions and releasing them in a healthy manner, we no longer are unconsciously influenced by them in a limiting way, and thus a filter falls away as we become clearer and lighter vessels for our soul to shine through. This process is one avenue or by-product of ascension.

After my vision, I wanted to commit it to canvas, but my artistic abilities stop at anything beyond a stick person. However, at a Christmas party, I met Laura Ungs who specializes in painting the concepts that people have in their minds. That beautiful painting now hangs in my office, a fitting place because my therapy practice focuses on guiding my clients to release and heal their limiting beliefs and emotions that were planted in the past, but continue to affect their present. Once the old programs are released or seen through, clients are no longer unconsciously governed by their limiting emotional patterns and they become freer beings. This healing then creates a ripple effect through the interactions of all their relationships.

This reminds me of a quote from Paramahansa Yogananda: “When you heal yourself, you do your part in healing the world.” As we become clearer and clearer vessels, no longer operating from our limited past programming and conditioning, the light within us, our true self, shines through our interactions with others in many ways. Ironically, the further we ascend the more beautiful and safe it becomes to be fully here and now. When we awaken and identify with our higher dimension that transcends space and time, we realize it has always been with us every step of the way…and ultimately it is who we are!